Career: German, Dutch, English. spent a little time before death in Netherlands and England.

Death: German (some accounts say he died in Germany)

4. Education

Schooling: No University

Mostly self-educated.

MD, U. of Mainz 16 Nov 1661--in view of the rest, it is highly unlikely that this was an earned degree.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Roman Catholic
6. Discipline: alchemy and metallurgy.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: None

7. Means of Support

Primary: 7. Support: Patronage, Governmental Position

1663, appointed professor of medicine at Mainz and physician to the elector of Mainz.

1664 (6?), went to Munich, was named Hofmedicus and Mathematicus to Ferdinand Maria, elector of Bavaria, who furnished him with a laboratory.

1666, obliged to leave Munich, went to Vienna. Later information indicates that he held his appointment in Bavaria until 1670, but in 1666 Leopold appointed him Imperial Commerical Advisor.

In 1669 he arranged with the Dutch West Indies Company for a colony, in the South America I think, for the Count of Hanau.

Appointed public professor of medicine at U of Mentz (sic).

He was appointed chamberlain to Count Zinzendorf, "and through him acquired so much importance in the eyes of the court, that he was named a member of the newly-erected College of Commerce, and obtained the title of imperial commercial counsellor and chamberlain" to Emperor Leopold I.

While in Vienna he established a Werkhaus containing a chemical lab for manufacturing pigments as well as for working with wool, silk, and glass.

1678, went to Holland, sold the city of Haarlem a plan for a machine that would spool silk cocoons.

1679, sold the Dutch a method of extracting gold from sea sand.

1679, at invitation of Prince Rupert, went to England; inspected mines in Cornwall (and Scotland?) for Prince Rupert.

1682, "an advantageous proposal was made to him by the Duke of Mecklenburg Gustrow, by means of Count Zinzendorf," but he died soon after.

When he died, his family was so poor his daughter had to go into domestic service.

Although the relationship is unclear to me, he clearly had some status with the Count of Hanau for a time.

Counsellor to Emperor Leopold I.

In England was "protected and befriended by Edmund Dickinson and Prince Rupert."

See "support" section for details.

9. Technological Involvement

Types: Chemistry, Instruments

1660, claimed to have invented a "thermoscope" for automatically regulating the temperature of a furnace.

Claimed to have invented a method for converting coal to coke.

In Bavaria he attempted to establish a silk industry and later a sugar refinery; it is far from clear what either enterprise amounted to.

Promoted various industries while counsellor to Leopold 1677-8, involved with silk and gold industries in Netherlands. I do not know how to evaluate these quasi entrepreneurial activities, and I am not listing them.

1681, took out a patent (with Henry Serle) on process for extracting tar from coal.